


On a Different Frequency

by kira_katrine



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cyborgs, F/F, Science Fiction, Sentient Spaceship, Telepathic Communication, of a sort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 09:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24847549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira_katrine/pseuds/kira_katrine
Summary: There is something out in space, afraid, in need of help but not wanting to risk asking a stranger for it. Lydia knows it's there--but no one else can hear.
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9
Collections: Turing Fest 2020





	On a Different Frequency

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rubber Chicken With A Keyboard (RCWAK)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RCWAK/gifts).



_Footsteps raced down halls. Lots of footsteps. Crowding together, nervously shifting, searching for where they were supposed to go._

_It was her job to lead them. It had been since they’d left home together, and it was only more so now._

_Let me, she whispered. Let me._

_These were her halls, her rooms. She knew every one. She knew which would be the safest, if the thing they feared could not be averted. It was the rooms she could move. The people ought to stay put._

_These were her people. They were the ones who could hear her. They lived within her. She was their home, their shield, that which stood between them and the void. That which stood between them and the others._

_The others were coming. She could see them. She could hear them._

_They could not hear her. If they could…_

_Perhaps they would not listen._

There was a buzzing in Lydia’s head. It was new. A lot was new in the months since her injury, in the weeks since she’d returned to duty as captain of the Carson.

“Stop it,” she muttered, jabbing at the metal node on the side of her head. It had no effect. Lydia groaned. She did not have time for this, for another weird new side effect. Not today. Not ever, really.

She’d just woken up from the strangest dream, too. Some sort of building--no, a ship, one she’d never seen before but knew so well. _Almost like it was a part of me_ \--no, it had been, somehow it _had_ been. And there had been people there too, people whose faces she couldn’t quite distinguish, but she knew each one. And something had been out there, something not quite known but which had filled everyone on board with dread--

Lydia shook her head. She’d been having strange dreams for a long time. After her injury, there had been nightmares. Nightmares in which it had been her own crew fleeing something they did not understand. In which that thing had been _her_.

She supposed she should be glad it wasn’t one of those.

Rashid had told her to come see him if her implant acted up. She remembered waking up in medbay, seeing both him and Dr. Barrett standing there, and wondering what could have happened.

 _I should probably take him up on that._ She didn’t know a whole lot about how these things were supposed to work--she’d never even met anyone else who had one--and she knew if anything went too badly wrong, it wasn’t just her who’d be in danger. It could be everyone on the ship, for all she knew. The thought of it was…

...well, there’d been a reason she’d had to take so much time before coming back.

But before she could call Rashid in engineering, the alert on her computer lit up, showing she was getting a call. Pushing her hair out of her face, she got up and went over to her desk to answer it.

“This is Captain Jameson,” Lydia said. “What’s going on?” Even after all this time, she still wasn’t totally used to her new voice. It didn’t sound like her--it was more akin to her computer’s voice program than anything.

“We’ve detected some kind of unknown ship,” said Roux, the helmswoman. “There appear to be life forms on board. We thought you’d want to come take a look at it.”

“I’m on my way,” Lydia said, going over to pull a clean uniform out of her closet.

It wasn’t any kind of ship Lydia had seen before.

The design wasn’t one of Earth’s, or any she knew of from a species humans had encountered. This was something entirely new. It almost didn't look like one thing--more like many little interconnected metal... pods? As she looked at it, she saw different parts of it shifting, moving into a new configuration.

The buzzing was getting stronger, she realized. It was getting very distracting. Worryingly distracting. She really needed to get over to Rashid as soon as she found the time-- _and when the hell does that happen?_ she asked herself.

“What’s happening?” Lydia asked, trying to push both the buzzing and the thoughts out of her mind.

“This showed up on our sensors,” Roux said, indicating the ship. “It doesn’t look like anything any of us are familiar with. It does look like it’s taken some damage, and it seems to have been here for a while, so we thought whoever’s on board might need help.”

“Send a message over to them,” Lydia said. The buzzing was almost starting to form words. She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, if her mind was seeking out patterns where there were none, as she knew minds often did--

\-- _stay in the center, stay put, don’t move, you don’t have to move, I have you, they won’t find you, you will be safe here--_

 _I know that voice,_ Lydia thought. She couldn’t think of where from. It didn’t sound human--but then, neither did she these days. She tried to focus in on it, to try to figure out what-- _where was it even coming from, anyway--_

“They’re not responding, Captain,” Roux said. “Should we try again?”

“Yes,” Lydia said. The voice had to have something to do with the ship in front of them. It was just too much of a coincidence otherwise. And if she was right, then whoever was on that ship was in danger. They really did need help.

_\--they’re trying, but that’s all it is, I won’t let them get to you, I can stop them, I did it before and will do it again--_

“Captain!” Olin said. 

Lydia snapped back to the situation at hand. The ship in front of them was glowing red, some pieces starting to spin--and then fired some kind of energy beam at the Carson.

The blast shook the ship. Lydia stumbled, but caught herself on the railing. She looked around. No one she could see looked too badly hurt, but who knew what had happened in the rest of the ship.

“Let’s get--” she started to say, but before she could finish her sentence she was suddenly somewhere else entirely--

_The footsteps were gone. Her halls were empty. It was as it should be. Their emergency plan was being followed. The other ship would turn back, if it was like the rest. The others would be gone. She and her crew would have to wait still longer for someone who could help them. She was not sure how much longer they could wait--but they had no choice._

_But someone else was there. Someone new, someone unknown, someone not in any of the data files--someone on a compatible frequency--_

Lydia knew this place. She had been there before.

And she knew what it had to be.

“I know you.” Lydia stepped towards their view of the other ship, as if it could see her--but that didn’t matter, did it, what mattered was that the ship could hear her.

Not anybody on the ship-- _the ship could hear her._ “I don’t know quite who you are, but I can hear you. And I hope you can hear me, in some way, now.”

“Captain?” Olin asked, concern in his voice. “Who are you talking to?”

Lydia hardly heard. “From what you’ve said,” she went on, “you just want to keep your people safe. I get that. But we’re no threat to you. We just want to go over and help--”

 _I do not know you,_ the voice of the ship said. _Others have said the same. Not all can be trusted._ The ship’s weapons system started to whir again.

“So you can hear me,” Lydia said. “Good. Well, we’ve met before. Do you remember?”

 _I did detect your presence,_ said the voice. _I did not recognize its significance before. I am still not certain I do._

“I saw you,” Lydia said. “And you are intriguing. You are strong. You show such courage, out here facing whatever it is your crew is afraid of. You’re protecting them, just like any of us would for our people. And that is beautiful, admirable, I almost--”

“What the hell is that?” Olin said.

The strange ship had started to glow again--not the weapons this time, but something else--and Lydia felt the oddest sensation come over her whole body. Roux and Olin and the others were staring at her in alarm.

Her surroundings were starting to blur and fade. This couldn’t be good. There was no way this could be anything other than--

She found herself in one of those same passageways she’d seen twice before, dimly lit, empty, with all kinds of odd wires and what looked like they might be outlets coming from the walls.

And she heard that voice--the one which, she realized, sounded a bit like her own new voice.

_“What are you?”_

“I’m a human being,” Lydia said. “I’m from a planet called Earth.”

_“And the others on your ship are not human beings?”_

“No, they are too,” said Lydia.

_“Then why can you alone hear me?”_

“Who are you, anyway?” Lydia asked. “You’re the one who pulled me onto this ship, without even asking me first. You’re the one who fired at my ship and endangered the lives of my crew. You’re the one who’s started talking to me inside my head, which as you seem to have noticed is not typical for my species. I think you’re the one who should be explaining some things to me first.”

There was no answer for a while. Finally the voice said, _“My name is Deka. I come from a planet called Kera.”_

“And you are this ship,” Lydia said. “I’m right about that, aren’t I?”

 _“That is correct,”_ Deka said.

“You’re like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” Lydia breathed. “I wasn’t lying before, you know. Your very existence is fascinating to me.”

 _“And to me,”_ Deka said, _“you are something I nearly recognize.”_

Somehow, Lydia knew where Deka wanted her to go. She wasn’t sure she should follow those directions--she knew this unknown being might be leading her into a trap. She peered around a corner. It looked like another hall, same as the one she was standing in.

“What did you mean by that?” Lydia asked. “Something you nearly recognize?”

_“You are not the only one I can speak to this way.”_

“But you can’t do it with everyone,” Lydia said. “I’m the only one from my ship.”

 _“I cannot do it with most,”_ said Deka. _“Most of those I encounter are purely organic beings, incompatible with this manner of communication. You are not, it appears.”_

That was what Lydia had suspected. “You’re right. I’m not.”

_“You are the one who leads your crew, as I am with mine, are you not?”_

“Yes. I’m the captain of the Carson. That’s my ship.”

 _“Is it customary for your leaders to be technologically augmented?”_ Deka asked.

“No,” Lydia said. “No, it’s not.”

 _“Interesting,”_ said Deka. _“I wondered if this was done for the purpose of facilitating communication with a greater range of life forms--but no, you seemed surprised we could hear each other. This function of your cybernetics was an unexpected one.”_

“That it certainly was,” Lydia said. “That and a whole lot more.”

_“What was the expected function? If you don’t mind my asking.”_

“I was in an accident,” Lydia said. She didn't really like to call it that--like it was some random twist of fate that this had happened, and not a clear result of her own choices--but she didn't want to go into all that. “I was badly hurt. If they hadn't put these cybernetic parts in, I wouldn't have survived.”

_“You were repaired.”_

“In a manner of speaking. I guess.” Lydia wasn’t sure she’d say that, herself.

_“And after that, you continue to explore?”_

“I do,” Lydia said. “We all do.” Stopping out of fear had never even been a real consideration for her. It had been a question of how, and when, and whether she could still contribute, still do good.

There was a click off to one side. Lydia turned and saw a door partially open. No light seemed to be coming through. She walked over to the door and pushed it open.

There was a hatch on the opposite side of the room--it didn't seem to lead anywhere. The window above it showed only empty space.

"I know you brought me in here for a reason," Lydia said. "You wanted me to come in here. Why?"

 _"That hatch once opened into another pod,"_ said Deka. _"It no longer does. That pod has been removed."_

"Removed?"

_"With others inside."_

She should have known something was wrong. It wasn't as if it hadn't crossed her mind--why had she trusted this being? "Others? What others?"

There was a long pause before Deka spoke.

_“Are you aware of how often people like my crew have been used as weapons of war?”_

“People like your crew?” Lydia hadn’t actually met Deka’s crew, and Deka had seemed much more… controlled since pulling Lydia on board. Before she’d been aware of Lydia’s presence, Lydia had been able to pick up a lot more, but now some things were clearly being hidden from her.

 _“You told me you became who you are by accident,”_ Deka said. _“My crew remade themselves by choice. People from our planet have been doing so for many, many years. But when they started to venture out here, they encountered others who had never seen anything like it. Some were merely curious. Others saw in these people tools they could use for their own ends. Many have died, or been taken away, or been left malfunctioning like my crew.”_

“Malfunctioning?” Lydia asked. “Deka, what happened to your crew?”

 _“The others came on board,”_ Deka said. _“They had damaged me somewhere inside, so I could not move. I could not find my way through space. The weapon they used hit my crew as well. It confused them, to prevent them from escaping. None of us could find our way through that which was around us. But we still knew ourselves. That was where they made their mistake.”_

“So you…”

_“I led them into the pod and locked them inside. I then jettisoned it far away, so they could not harm us again. I do not know what happened to them--I doubt they made it back to their ship."_

_They very well might not have made it at all_ , Lydia thought. But she knew Deka had felt she had no other choice. That it was either that or kill them outright.

" _I_ _have wondered, since, if there was more I could have done,"_ Deka went on. _"I had hoped to keep your crew from boarding my ship at all, to simply send you on your way. But when I realized something was different about you--that not only can you hear me like my crew can, but that you wanted to listen--I thought you might be my only chance."_

Lydia knew what it was like to be willing to do anything for her people. After she'd led them into that fight all those months ago, not realizing how outmatched they would be, once she'd understood and just wanted to get them all out--

 _\--well, that's how I ended up like this,_ Lydia thought.

 _“I would prefer not to do what I did again,”_ Deka said. _“Especially not to you, Lydia. But I had to know I could trust you.”_

“You can,” Lydia said. “I really am here to help.”

 _“I fired on your ship because I did not know you could hear me,”_ Deka said. _“Most outsiders are not able to. Had I known, I would have simply told you to go.”_

“I’m not sure how I would have explained that one to my crew,” Lydia said. “Until today, I didn’t know this was a possibility myself. I’m not sure anyone did.”

_“But they still would have listened to you, would they not?”_

“Yes,” Lydia said. “I know they would. But I’m glad it didn’t come to that. You shouldn’t have to be trapped here.”

 _“Do you know how to repair us?”_ Deka asked.

“I don’t,” Lydia said. “But I know someone who might. I can have him come over, if that’s all right with you.”

_“And I can trust that this person will not harm my crew?”_

“Absolutely,” Lydia said. “I wouldn’t have him on my ship if he would. And if he did--then he’d have me to answer to.”

“If you hadn’t shown up when you did, Captain, a bunch of us were about to fly this shuttle over here and get you out ourselves,” Roux said.

Lydia had returned to Deka, along with Roux, Dr. Barrett, Rashid, and a few members of Rashid’s engineering crew. Deka had sent her back to the Carson to bring her message to her crew, and once they had known what was going on, they’d readily agreed to help. 

“I had it handled,” Lydia said, but she couldn’t help but smile slightly. 

She was going to stay with Rashid while he and the others worked, to help Deka communicate with them if it was needed. Hopefully, everything would go well, and Deka and her crew would be able to continue on their way.

Hopefully… but Lydia found she wasn’t looking forward to it.

Three moons shone in the sky, their light reflecting off the lake. Lydia could just make out the dark green of the trees on the hills, feel soft purple sand beneath her.

 _“I do not know your planet,”_ Deka said. _“Earth, you called it. But this way, I can at least show you mine.”_

“There’s no ‘at least’ about it,” said Lydia. “This place is absolutely beautiful.”

_“I am glad you appreciate it.”_

“But you don’t see this place much, do you?” Lydia asked. “You spend most of your time up here, out in space. Do you think of Kera as home?”

 _“It is the home of my crew,”_ Deka said. _“You are correct, I have spent little time planetside and have never seen this particular place firsthand. But they call it home, and they are close enough to me that I see it that way as well.”_

When Lydia had returned to Earth after her injury, it had felt strange. It didn’t seem like where she belonged. She’d felt trapped, wanting to get back on a ship as soon as she could.

“I want to know _you_ ,” Lydia said. “Where would your home be, Deka?”

_She was flying, stardust shooting by around her, bright lights on all sides marking her path. Every one a tiny world of its own. None of them quite like the world that was her._

And then she was back on Kera, under that night sky, three moons glowing above her.

“That’s what it feels like for you,” Lydia said. “I obviously can’t see it exactly the same way you do… but your home is mine too.”

That was how it had always felt for Lydia, too. She had felt like she was meant to be out in space, just as much as Deka literally was. 

After her injury, after she'd woken up forever changed in more ways than one, for a time she wasn’t sure if she was meant to be anywhere. But now she knew. 

_“You feel like you are alone.”_

“Yes,” Lydia whispered, feeling tears come to her eyes. 

_“You do not have to be,”_ Deka said. _“You can join me. You can join my crew. You are like them, Lydia, and I believe you are also like me.”_

The thought almost tempted Lydia. Already, she cared for Deka. She felt a connection to her that she hadn’t felt in a long time. And she knew she could learn a lot from Deka’s crew, about who she was and what her life could be.

“I can’t,” Lydia said. “I made a commitment to my own crew. I can’t just leave them. They may not understand all of who I am now--it’s clear I still don’t fully understand it myself--but they mean well, and they’re my responsibility. I know you understand that.”

 _“I do,”_ said Deka. _“I do understand that very well.”_

“But I hope this won’t be the last time I see you,” Lydia said. “If you need someone you can trust, you can call me. Whether you need help, or just want to talk again.”

 _“I hope I find you again as well,”_ Deka said. _“It can get lonely out here. It has been wonderful to get to meet with you.”_

The scenery around Lydia disappeared, and she was left looking once again at the empty room, the inside of Deka. A skylight on the ceiling allowed her to look up, at the stars they would both soon be traveling once more.

It was all beautiful too.

 _“So are you,”_ Deka said, and though she knew it couldn’t be, Lydia thought she almost felt the ship embracing her.


End file.
